German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that Europe was planning a billion-dollar plan to help rebuild Ukraine after the war with Russia. At a conference in Berlin, European Union leaders treated Kiev as a member of the bloc, stoking tensions with Vladimir Putin, who fears the group’s expansion even closer to its borders.
“This is not a regular donor conference,” Scholz said, adding that the project “is something deeper, a new Marshall Plan for the 21st century.” The German referred to the US economic aid program to Western European countries after World War II. Tuesday’s conference brought together national leaders, company heads and development experts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian missiles and Iranian drones had destroyed more than a third of the country’s energy infrastructure and asked for financial assistance from the European bloc in maintaining the grid.
Last week, the European Union announced that it would give Kiev €1.5 billion a month in 2023 to help the government hold Ukraine while the country’s army fights Russian troops. It is uncertain, however, whether this aid will be able to avoid the catastrophe announced with the arrival of winter, although the bloc has also announced help to restore the country’s water, energy and electricity supply.
Ukraine estimates that the physical damage from the war totals US$750 billion (R$3.9 trillion), considering the destruction of hospitals, schools and factories; the World Bank pointed out in September that the damage would cost US$ 349 billion (R$ 1.8 trillion).
“It is Ukraine that can ensure that Russian revanchism does not destroy our European home,” Zelensky said, adding that investing in his country “is investing in the reconstruction of a future member of the European Union.”
Kiev’s accession to the European bloc, by the way, was mentioned again this Tuesday by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who reinforced Ukraine’s status as a candidate for the group. In practice, however, the path to effective adherence can take years, or even decades, as the process requires profound reforms in the country.
An eventual accession is also conditioned to the course of the war – this is because everything indicates that the Kremlin would not accept that the neighboring country became a member of the bloc. In addition, an EU mechanism provides that the group can respond militarily if one of its members is attacked, paving the way for a Third World War.
Also on Tuesday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Kiev and promised more support for Ukraine, especially in air defense. “We will continue to support Ukraine economically, politically and also militarily,” he told reporters.
In Germany, the post of president is largely ceremonial, but Steinmeier’s support reinforces the EU’s top country’s stance on Ukraine. The German, by the way, until the other day defended the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a project that would double the flow of gas from Russia to Germany and consolidate the Kremlin’s influence on the European electricity grid.
On the Russian side, Putin called on Tuesday for the simplification of his country’s military strategy in the conflict. The statement follows a series of news reports about the alleged disorganization of Russian troops in the neighboring country, including the lack of basic supplies for the recalled reservists.
In practice, the declaration came as a tug on the ears of his generals: “Administrative reform is impossible without broader coordination between all departments: the economic bloc, the security bloc and the regions,” he said.
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